DOI issue:
No. 198 (September, 1908)
DOI article:West, W. K.: An artist from Australia: Mr. Arthur Streeton
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0294
Arthur Street on
the more abstruse problems of art while he is still
little more than a beginner. He has to find out
everything for himself, to construct his own system,
to build his foundation of technical knowledge in
his own way, and upon this foundation to base the
manner of expression which is to be his throughout
his life.
But though, no doubt, self-education involves
some loss of time for the student, because he has
to hunt out unassisted all the short cuts, instead of
having them pointed out to him by a master who
knows the whole of them by heart, it encourages in
him a very valuable habit of self-reliance and an
entirely personal attitude towards the principles of
artistic practice. Best of all, it gives full scope to
his individuality and saves him from the risk of
having his instincts conventionalised. In a
school there is necessarily a clearly defined course
of training to which every student has to conform,
and this conformity is apt to limit in after life the
powers of initiative which these students naturally
possess, and to incline them to work by rule rather
than by inspiration. It takes much strength of
character to enable an artist to break away from
the dogmas which have been imposed upon him
by an art school and to allow him to be frankly
himself; the memory of the things he was told to
do when he was too young and too inexperienced
to have much will of his own has a surprising power
to affect him in his maturer years, even though
with a wider understanding of his craft he has come
to recognise that many of these things are actually
prejudicial to his art and interfere with his proper
development.
In Mr. Streeton’s case there has certainly been
nothing to hamper the evolution of his personality.
From the first he has been free to work out his
artistic destiny in the way that seemed best to him,
and to choose the course in art which was most in
accordance with his temperament. He was born
in Australia—at Melbourne in 1867—and in
Australia he remained until he was thirty years old,
the more abstruse problems of art while he is still
little more than a beginner. He has to find out
everything for himself, to construct his own system,
to build his foundation of technical knowledge in
his own way, and upon this foundation to base the
manner of expression which is to be his throughout
his life.
But though, no doubt, self-education involves
some loss of time for the student, because he has
to hunt out unassisted all the short cuts, instead of
having them pointed out to him by a master who
knows the whole of them by heart, it encourages in
him a very valuable habit of self-reliance and an
entirely personal attitude towards the principles of
artistic practice. Best of all, it gives full scope to
his individuality and saves him from the risk of
having his instincts conventionalised. In a
school there is necessarily a clearly defined course
of training to which every student has to conform,
and this conformity is apt to limit in after life the
powers of initiative which these students naturally
possess, and to incline them to work by rule rather
than by inspiration. It takes much strength of
character to enable an artist to break away from
the dogmas which have been imposed upon him
by an art school and to allow him to be frankly
himself; the memory of the things he was told to
do when he was too young and too inexperienced
to have much will of his own has a surprising power
to affect him in his maturer years, even though
with a wider understanding of his craft he has come
to recognise that many of these things are actually
prejudicial to his art and interfere with his proper
development.
In Mr. Streeton’s case there has certainly been
nothing to hamper the evolution of his personality.
From the first he has been free to work out his
artistic destiny in the way that seemed best to him,
and to choose the course in art which was most in
accordance with his temperament. He was born
in Australia—at Melbourne in 1867—and in
Australia he remained until he was thirty years old,